Nation

Football fans look forward to start of EPL

PETALING JAYA: After all the thrills and spills from the World Cup, football fans in the country are preparing for month without any action on the field.

Anthony Chan, 27, said that life would go on even if there was no football action for the next few weeks.

“Football is one of the things that interests me but I have other interests, too. So yeah, I can do without football for a few weeks,” said Chan, who works for a publishing company.

However, the Manchester United fan said he would be following the club’s pre-season tour of the United States.

“I will also look out for transfers and rumours of players moving to different clubs. I also hope to see more players joining United after Shaw and Herrera like Di Maria, Vidal and Sneijder,” he said.

Other fans have also set their sights on following news and rumours of transfers before the English Premier League season starts on Aug 16.

The Italian Serie A begins on the Aug 31, Spanish La Liga on Aug 24 and German Bundesliga on Aug 22.

On Facebook, Malaysian netizens greeted the football-free time with mixed reactions.

For Theventhran Manickam, it meant the end of sleepless nights: “At least after this I would be able to get good sleep.”

Yewchien Ng is looking forward to the summer football transfer window: “See what Louis Van Gaal gonna bring in for Manchester United next season.”

Once the World Cup is over, Amirul Amsyar will count down the days to the Barclay’s Premier League which starts next month.

Chern Xun Gan described the pre-season tour, when Manchester United will meet UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid, as “better than watching Premier League”.

Journalist Ashwin Kumar, 23, who has watched more than 50 matches already during this World Cup, said the football transfer window was getting interesting especially since Luis Suarez had left Liverpool for Barcelona.

“I am looking for updates on the transfer window and what Liverpool is doing with the £75mil (RM409 million) they got from Suarez’s move to Barcelona,” he said.

Chuah Chang En, 23, who works at G-Hotel in Penang, laughed and joked when he said “since there is no football to watch, and no girlfriend to spend time with, I’ll ‘watch out’ for the future girlfriend to watch football with me”.